Stage 7: Virenque–King for a Day, King of the Mountains

Richard Virenque held off the peloton for over 100km to take the stage win, the King of the Mountains lead, and the yellow jersey (by 2:37 over Armstrong). It was a gutsy effort to attack early in a 230 km stage with 5 climbs. Virenque may be spent for tomorrow, but he’s got a good lead in the race for the polka dot jersey.

Lance Armstrong obviously wanted to save energy for the big race tomorrow. USPS rode a controlled tempo that most of the contenders could cope with, but Gilberto Simoni and Santiago Botero couldn’t. It’s possible they can regain form, but now nearly ten minutes behind Armstrong, their hopes for winning it all are done. And if Botero wants to concentrate on the polka dot jersey, he’s already far behind Virenque. Doh!

So, I was wrong in thinking Armstrong would make a move today. But it’s pretty obvious tomorrow is the big day. Again here’s the profile for stage 8. The stage is 211km. At 10km there is a measly little 10km climb of 5.2 % grade. At 125 km they hit the Col du Telegraphe, 12km at 6.8%; it’s followed by the Col du Galibier, 18km at 6.7%. The finishing line is at the end of the climb to l’Alpe d’Huez: 14km at 8%. Get ready for the showdown.

The US Postal squad looked good today. They placed 4 riders in the main field of climbers. However, the big day of Quick-Step now puts them in the lead of the team competition by 2 and a half minutes over USPS. Still, the USPS riders held a pace fast enough to discourage attacks, and when Vinokourov did launch an attack, they reeled him in within minutes.


The other big news of the day was Alessandro Petacchi. No, he didn’t win another stage, and he won’t win any more. He rode his bike for an hour, then once he saw an incline, he decided to quit. Yes, he’s definitely cut in the mold of Mario Cipollini. The green jersey race is now wide open again. Baden Cooke inherits it and holds an 8 point lead over Robbie McEwen. Jaan Kirsipuu also abandoned in today’s stage.


And under the radar, Tyler Hamilton rode with Armstrong’s group. Broken collar bone & all, he’s now in 20th position. Also under the radar, Vladimir Karpets cracked in the mountains and yielded his white jersey to fellow Banesto rider Denis Menchov.

Stage 6—looking back & looking forward

Look out! Here’s the first chart of the 2003 TdF. It’s the top 10 in the green jersey competition after 6 stages.

1 PETACCHI Alessandro ITA FAS 144 pts
2 COOKE Baden AUS FDJ 118 pts
3 MC EWEN Robbie AUS LOT 110 pts
4 HUSHOVD Thor NOR C.A 100 pts
5 ZABEL Erik GER TEL 98 pts
6 O'GRADY Stuart AUS C.A 91 pts
7 NAZON Jean-Patrick FRA DEL 88 pts
8 PAOLINI Luca ITA QSD 87 pts
9 KIRSIPUU Jaan EST A2R 84 pts
10 FREIRE Oscar ESP RAB 83 pts

Petacchi is an animal, winning 4 stages already. Today he also bothered to steal two points on an intermediate sprint. Right now it looks like the mountains are the only things that can stop him.

McEwen, Zabel, and Kirsipuu all came up empty in the bunch sprint. The goose egg really, really hurts their chances for winning. Zabel & McEwen were headed for a great battle with each other—Zabel was consistently beating McEwen by a tiny bit to close the gap, but now they’re both in the same boat needing to claw their way back into contention. On the flip side, Hushovd and Cooke made huge gains to climb ahead.

Stretegies: Thus far we’ve seen three strategies
1) Wet your beak in everything: McEwen consistently finished high, but also scrambles for the intermediate sprint points. Nazon and Kirsipuu did it too, just not as well.
2) Just finish high: It’s as though Zabel doesn’t even know about the intermediate sprint points. He just rides to finish in the top 5 each day. Baden Cooke also used this approach.
3) Sawed-off shotgun approach: Petacchi’s “Just win the friggin’ stage” tactic.

At this point, strategy #2 is only a viable option for Petacchi to hold his lead; it’s not going to close a 30 or 40point gap. If there is a disaster, then that changes things. A disaster is very possible, but it’s no way to plan your strategy.

Stephen is right to say that Petacchi will probably have the green jersey for a while, but a lot will change in the mountains. Two years ago we saw Stuart O’Grady nickel & dime his way against Zabel by picking up modest points at the intermediate sprints on each mountain stage. Expect some of the chasers to be vigilant in the mountains. Anyone who nets +15-20 points against Petacchi will be within striking range—assuming Petacchi survives the mountains.

Onward & upward
But the green jersey now takes a back seat. The next three stages are in the Alps. In the first two the yellow jersey contenders are going to show up and make some noise. I imagine Simoni, Ullrich, and Beloki are itching to attack Lance. We’ll see what condition Ullrich is really in, and we’ll see who takes the polka dot jersey away from the imposter who now holds it. But remember, as we enter the mountains, it’s Armstrong’s time now. By Monday he may have a 4 minute lead.

Stage 6

I feel bad for Stuart O'Grady and Antony Geslin. They broke away from the peleton at the 40km mark and enjoyed the most successful breakway of the Tour. For 180 km, they led the race, building up a lead as large as 18 minutes. In the end, they couldn't hold off the pack, and they were caught in the final sprint. Think about that. They held a lead for 180 km, only to lose it in the last 500 meters. They finished 20th and 59th on the day. They were 500 meters away from 1st and 2nd.

Petacchi may have won the Green Jersey today. Not only did he win his fourth stage, his biggest rivals, McEwen and Zabel, were invloved in a crash in the final 5k. Neither made it back to the peleton and didn't participate in the final sprint. Only Baden Cooke and Thor Hushovd made it of the real contenders. So now Petacchi has a huge lead: 26 points over Cooke, 34 to McEwen, 44 to Hushovd, and 46 to Zabel. With the race about to go into the Alps, the sprinters won't be able to pick up any real ground until probably Stage 10, and then a long break until Stage 17. Provided he makes it through the mountains, Petacchi's got at least a week in green. Probably he'll be wearing it on the podium in Paris.

Now, let's look at the big winners of week one before we head to the Alps.
US Postal Pena's in first, Lance is a second out. They have every slot in the top eight, and the closest competitor is over 30 seconds out. They really made a statement that they are an aweseome team around Armstrong. HONORS: 3 days in yellow, 1 stage win.
FDJ What can you say? They have wreaked havoc. They have been downright awesome in the earliest stages, at one point holding first in three different classifications. Even if they don't have a single rider depart tommorrow, they have had a successful Tour. Heck, and Cooke's still in 2nd for the green. HONORS: 3 days in yellow, 2 stage wins, 2 days in white, 1 day in green, 1 day in polka dots.
Fassa Bortolo Or more accurately, Petacchi. He's won almost every sprint he's been in. He's absolutely dominating the points classification, and the team has ridden strong to put him in a position to win every time. Basso's only two minutes out, so he's still in the running for the podium, but this team is now riding for green. HONORS: 4 stage wins, 1 day in Green.
Banesto Mancebo goes into the mountains 1:30 out. They also have all three of the top slots in the youth category. They are in a nice position before the real race begins. HONORS: 4 days in white.
ONCE No, they didn't win anything. They weren't a factor in any stage, but their number one guy is closer to the lead than anyone else. Beloki's only 30 seconds down, his team kept him in position to strike.

The losers?
Saeco By finishing so far back in the time trial, Simoni needs to beat Lance by over three and half minutes in the mountains. That isn't very likely. His Tour is probably done.
Rabobank They lost Leipheimer, their best shot at yellow, in Stage One. Friere, their best shot at green, is already over 60 points out. No one had a worse first week.
Telekom The team is riding great, and they have nothing to show for it. Their stated goal of attacking US Postal hasn't worked at all, and Zabel's crash puts him almost 50 points out. They rode great, and Zable is 50 points out. Imagine if they rode poorly.
Lotto Five days in green down the drain. Today's crash just absolutely crushed the Lotto team. Petacchi opened up a 34 point lead in one sprint. So not only does McEwen need to win a stage, he needs to do it and have Petacchi fail to finish in the final peleton to make all of those points back. Or just beat him in every sprint from now until Paris. Good luck.

Stage 5



Another day, another sprint finish, another win for Petacchi. That's the third time in four stages Petacchi has won the final sprint. He is clicking on all cylinders, particularly today, as the final sprint was set up perfectly for Baden Cooke to win. FDJ maneuvered him right to the front and peeled off with about 400-300 meters to go. Cooke looked to have the stage, only to have Petacchi blow by a win the stage. By a lot. Look at that finish, it's not even close.

So Petacchi has won three stages and he's still down one point in the Green Jersey standings to Robbie McEwen. So McEwen's got to be sweating bullets right now. In head to head sprints, he's losing. He's in green right now just because he picked up enough intermediate points here and there. Every breakway is costing McEwen chances to pad his lead, which has almost totally evaporated.

The King of the Mountains jersey changed hands. No one cares yet. It's all about the green right now. And predictably, Nazon is sliding back in the pack and Cooke is joining his rightful place among the real leaders for the points title. Zabel's still in third, but he's falling further back and now he's almost been caught from behind.

The 230 km Stage 6 looms large. Because though there will some early sprints in Stage 7, the Tour has its first Category One climb on Saturday. And then we're in the mountains and the goal of all of these sprinters is just to not drop out of the race.

Stage 4: Team Time Trial

Remember the days when people said Lance Armstrong’s team was a detriment to his chances for winning the Tour? Yeah, well, USPS beat ONCE by half a minute. ONCE is the best in the business at team time trials, and they just got smashed. Phil Liggett said “This is an exhibition” as USPS came up to the line, all the riders smiling as they knew they had done something special.

This is huge for Armstrong’s victory plans, because instead of trailing Beloki or Ullrich by 30-60 seconds, Lance is the one with a few seconds in his pocket before the race gets heavy. And what a great treat for Victor Hugo Pena. The servant finds himself wearing the yellow jersey, the first Columbian ever to do it.

Bianchi & ONCE both had good days, leaving Jan Ullrich and Joseba Beloki both about half a minute back. So, they're in stalking range. Banesto and Telekom aren't great time trial teams, but they did well considering, so that leaves Mancebo and Botero with fighting chances for the podium. Quick Step and Vini Calderola also did a good job of helping the chances of Richard Virenque and Stefano Garzelli. They were about 90 seconds behind USPS, so it could have been a lot worse. All of these guys have lost time to Armstrong, so it’s a tall order for them to catch him, but they are all in the hunt for podium spots. Of course, they’ll have to pass Roberto Heras, Jose Rubiera, and Manuel Beltran on the way there.

Are they really fighting for second? Here's what Beloki had to say. "It's obvious after today (Armstrong) is very strong and he will probably win again unless he has some sort of problem." Sound's like Beloki reads our page.

It was a lot worse for Gilberto Simoni and Iban Mayo, and Saeco and Euskatel both finished three minutes back. Being a few minutes behind Lance before the mountains ain’t good. Or as Simoni put it, "I don't know how to explain it... I am demoralized." Look for Simoni to attack as soon as he sees mountains. He's got a lot of time to make up.

In the fallout of the Stage 1 wreck, Rabobank and CSC suffered from their injuries & abandons. Tyler Hamilton still has a broken collar bone, but he hasn't quit the race yet. He's planning to see how it goes in the mountains and decide if he can give it a good effort. Tyler is a beast.

In other news, Vladimir Karpets reclaimed the white jersey on the strength of Banesto’s great ride.

And the next two stages belong to the sprinters, though the rolling hills will favor big breakaways. Don’t look for USPS to defend the yellow jersey.

Stage Four

Don't mess with Lance.

It was fun while it lasted, as teams like FDJ and AG2R fought for podium slots. Sprinters wore the yellow jersey. The heavy hitters sat back in the pack and came nowhere near winning a stage. Normally, this kind of behavior lasts until the mountains, but the Team Time Trial gave the Posties a chance to blow everyone's doors off.

And they did.

Only two teams finished within one minute of their time. The closest, ONCE, was out by 30 seconds. Only half of the field was even within two minutes. It was just a punishing perfomance. Now, the top eight riders in the GC are all from US Postal. Lance is in second place, exactly one second behind Pena, the first Colombian to ever wear the yellow jersey. The field has just spotted Armstrong a half-minute lead before they even get to the mountains. That's very bad.

Beloki's ONCE team rode well, so he's 32 seconds behind Armstrong. Ullrich's new team rode well as well, so he's only 38 seconds behind the four-time champ. But the other contenders are in a much deeper hole. Botero and Mancebo are a minute and half back. David Millar is two minutes out. Vino is a minute and three-quarters down. Simoni is over three minutes back, in 106th place. In the first real showdown of the Tour, Lance laid down the law.

testing. will it work?

Stage Three

For an uneventful day of racing, it was a bizarre stage. Beloki at one point decided to get his toenails clipped. so he pulled up to the team car, fiddled with some clippers and then raced abck to the peleton. I have absolutely no idea what that was about. An actors' strike bloked the road at one point, bringing the race to an almost virtual stop. And the final sprint was marked by an amazing crash by Haselbacher, who landed with such force the ground ripped his pants off. So, all in all, a fun day.

Due to time bonuses, we have a new rider in yellow, Jean-Patrick Nazon of Jean Delatour. He finished at the same time as McGee, but he picked up some points in the intermediate sprints which gave him enough time bonuses to take the overall lead. So another minor French team gets to defend the yellow jersey for a few days.

But, of course, this day was all about the sprinters. Nazon went all out on all three intermediate sprints, earning points on all three. Kirsipuu and McEwen were also active on the early sprints, but not as successful. Of course, on the final sprint, Kirsipuu finished 22nd and Nazon 14th, so it's probably a good thing for the contenders those were the guys picking up intermediate points.

Once again, Petacchi won the final sprint, so he may not be in Green, but he is really putting his stamp on the race right now. That's two stage wins already. He's not racing for those cheap points in the middle of stages, he's going for the big bonus at the end. And it's a strategy that is working quite well for him. However, even with two stage wins, McEwen is up on points. As long as Petacchi keeps winning these final sprints, he can win Green, but unless he's going to win every stage, he's eventually going to have to win an intermediate sprint or two.

The biggest thing about this sprint finish was this was the first time every contender was at the front for the final 100 meters and there was no crash at the front of the race. This really was the first time every sprinter faced off on equal ground. What did we learn? Zabel can't get over the top still. McEwen burned himself out a bit on the intermediates, so even though he finished fifth, he still finished 3rd in points on the day. Friere has a lousy team with Rabobank already banged up. He could win a straight sprint, but that isn't going to happen much. And Petacchi is a bad mo fo.

So four riders have seperated from the pack: McEwen, Zabel, Petacchi, and Nazon. Cooke, Friere, and Hushovd, and Kirsipuu are close enough to still be threats, but they have to do something spectacular in the next few days or else they can wait until next year. I think Nazon will fade and either Friere or Cooke will join that top group, but this is looking like it will be a three man race: McEwen, Zabel, and Petacchi. I think McEwen is the favorite in that case.

Stage Two

Tyler Hamilton is the toughest son of a bitch on the face of the planet.

Hamilton has a broken collarbone. A broken collarbone, people! And he refuses to drop from the Tour. I just can't imagine that he can make it through the mountains with an injury that keeps him from using his upper body. But, the man refused to withdraw and finished the stage today, probably riding in ridiculous amounts of pain. The tour is brutal when you are fully healthy, but riding with a broken collarbone is suicidal. We though Nardello was tough a few years back for finishing a stage covered in blood, refused to withdraw, and crawled back into a decent final standing. Hamilton makes Nardello look like a sissy.

Once again, some lousy French riders had a nice, long breakway. Then the peleton methodically pulled them in and put them out of their misery. Because it was only a two-man break, there was a chance to pick up 2 points on each of the intermeidate sprints. Nazon, Petacchi, and McEwen all managed to lead the peleton during the intermediates. McEwen's sprint was ridiculous. He just blew away the field and had already sat back in his saddle as he passed the checkpoint. In a dead sprint, I don't think anyone can beat him right now.

This is also the second day Team Telekom has been unbelievable in support of Zabel, and its the second time he's let them down. Jason is right about thier brilliant job after his puncture yesterday, and today, they led the chase of the leaders and got Zabel to the front for the final sprint. He rewarded his team's brilliant work by finishing fourth in the sprint.

I'll say it, Zabel has lost a step. He's not going to win the Green. The way Telekom is riding, the Zabel of old would be well ahead on points right now. Instead, McGee is in Green and Zabel is in third, eight points out. That's still real good, I'm not saying Zabel's turned into a pumpkin, but he's no longer the guy to beat. McEwen is.

And is FDJ going to party tonight! McGee is still in yellow, Mengin is in dots, Cooke won the stage and now he's in 2nd in the Points standings, and they are having their most successful Tour ever. It won't last, but even if they fail to do anything else for the rest of the race, FDJ is one of the big winner's of this year's race.

Stage 1--Gioia report

Absoultely, it's a huge loss to see that massive pile-up at the end of stage 1. Two podium contenders are gone. Rabobank lost two riders and we've yet to get to the team time trial. I feel worst for Hamilton. He planned his whole year around this race, and now it's done in one day because of the stupidity of others.

As for the tricky corner, there have always been corners near the ends of stages. It would be hard to design a course without any. That said, I'll take the riders' words for it when they say it was egregious. But what about the guy who started it? Kelme has no business being near the front of a sprint finish. Sending a Kelme rider into the top 25 places at the sprint is like sending your fullback to catch a Hail Mary pass.

Other notes:
1)NO ONE is having a better year than Alessandro Petacchi!
2) Telekom was awesome in getting Zabel back into the peloton after he had a puncture 10km from the finish.
3) Fassa Bortolo (Fast Bordello) did a great job pacing the peloton back to the breakaway and again in leading out Petacchi.
4) USPS is first in the team competition. It's early, but not meaningless. Their aiming to get a prime starting position for Wednesday's time trial.
5) Once again, Christophe Mengin (FDJeux) has taken the pre-mountain King of the Mountains Jersey. When the race goes from hills to mountains a real climber will take it from him. In the meantime, he earns his team money for each day he's got the lead. FDJeux is keeping two of the four leaders' jerseys warm until the contenders rise up.

And just in case you needed another reason to hate the TdF organizers...

Tour de France chief Jean-Marie Leblanc admitted Friday that organizers of this year's race had been duped into reaching agreement with Batasuna, the banned political wing of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, to allow the 16th stage between Pau and Bayonne in southwestern France to be conducted bilingually. "We were conned, tricked," claimed Leblanc on the eve of the start of the centenary Tour.

Good job, you freakin' clod. Why not get al Qaeda, Hizbullah, the IRA, the PLO, and FARC to sponsor other TdF sites. Better yet, see if you can get Zacharias Mussaoui rather than Bernard Hinault to shake hands with the winners. But there is more entertainment here...

Tour of Spain director Enrique Franco slammed the move as "a serious blunder".

I think it's great that a man named Franco runs the Vuelta. The Basques can't be happy with that. But we've got to go back to Leblanc for the best quote.

"I can't imagine that an elected representative could have links with a criminal organization," he said.

What planet are you from, man?

Getting back to the seminal stupidity of the matter, why is it such an ordeal to get a bilingual event? Why should it be such a problem to have someone speak in the Basque language when the Tour rides into a Basque town and is patronized by Basque people? Why does Leblanc have to go through special channels to get an Euskara speaker? Is it because the TdF won't allow it without the proper 'donation' from the town?

Jean-Marie Leblanc is a moron!

Stage One

We should talk about Petacchi, who won the sprint to the line to claim a stage victory and that he is a real contender for the Green. Or Robbie McEwen, who finished second in the final sprint, picked up enough points to get himself back in Green Jersey. We should talk about an eight-minute breakway by three riders who had three common attributes:

1) They ride for marginal teams
2) They are French
3) They suck

But we're not going to. OK, I just mentioned that other stuff (neat trick, eh?), but the big story of the day is Kelme's Jose Enrique Guitierrez. His foot slipped off the pedals about 400 meters from the finish on a bizarre tight turn down the stretch. In the fast-moving peleton, that close to the finish line, there was bound to be a disastrous crash. And there was. Among its casualties were Lance Armstrong and Brad McGee, but they got off lucky. OK, not McGee, who needed the points on the final sprint, but he's okay.

Levi Leipheimer broke a bone in his spine. Tyler Hamilton broke his collarbone. Both are out of the Tour de France because the organizers don't know how to design the final kilometer of a course which was going to have a huge sprint finish. Armstrong, predictably, blamed the French. But that's nothing new, he's had a long-standing feud with Tour organizers. Petacchi, the winner of the stage, joined the chorus, as did Benard Riis, former winner and CSC's manager. When even the winner complains about the course, it's not just sour grapes.

So we were nice to the organizers for a good 24 hours. Now let's set those phasers to kill. How many incompetents are allowed to run this race? It's like they go out of their way to make stupid decisions which will backfire horribly. There just shouldn't be hairpin turns in the finals sprint of a flat stage. They had to know the peleton would finish as one huge mass. This crash didn't have to happen. And now two podium threats are out of the Tour on the first real day fo racing.